Ribbon of Memes

It's been over a century and a quarter since the first moving picture was committed to celluloid - the "ribbon of dreams", as Orson Welles mellifluously intoned.

And so, welcome, one and all, to Ribbon of Memes, a new podcast in which Roger Bell_West and Nick Marsh supply grateful listeners hot takes about films considered masterpieces by critics or filmgoers in general.

The rules: we choose one "masterpiece" from every year from the earliest days of cinema to our dreadful modern dystopia. Do we agree these films are classics? Are we entertained? Did we even understand what the film was trying to say? The questions are endless!*

We start in 1973 (for reasons explained in the first podcast) and progress vaguely chronologically (unless we think of another film that makes an interesting comparison to the one we have just seen, or are otherwise distracted by shiny new things).

Yes, that's right, we decided that what the world really needed was two more uninformed middle-aged white guys telling the world about media largely produced by similar people. Find out whether we were right or not herein!

*Actually, no, that's most of them.

We're also on iTunes, Spotify and Google Podcasts.

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Vietnam-a-Thon 08 January 2022

Particularly after Aliens, a consideration of Vietnam films seemed inevitable, so Nick and Roger discuss Platoon (1986), Full Metal Jacket (1987) and Good Morning, Vietnam (1987).

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Tags: war

  1. Posted by Robert at 06:20pm on 09 January 2022

    Only one thought on the second half of Full Metal Jacket.

    I thought of it was that Joker had not shot anyone before. Maybe I was reading too much into him being a journalist for Stars and Stripes when he met back up with cowboy and maybe there’s just not clarity about what he was doing in country between boot and Hue. I think the second half is better than it gets credit for but the change in story clarity and the style of the transition definitely don’t do it any favors in terms of comparison or set up.

  2. Posted by RogerBW at 06:23pm on 09 January 2022

    Yes, if it hadn't come after that stunning first part I might have been better-disposed towards it.

  3. Posted by J Michael Cule at 12:58pm on 12 January 2022

    I think 'Police Action' was the description of the Korean War which was UN authorised. It might have been used of Vietnam.

    As I have said before I actually auditioned for FULL METAL JACKET. It was shot in the UK and my then agent rented one of the rooms in their home/office for the casting director to shoot video of selected actors. She felt that I was ideal casting for 'a large young man'. I could not convince her that I did not have the body of a Marine. The subsequent audition is one of my many embarassing memories of acting. Hi Ho THe Glamourous Life.

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